"कुत्ता मेज़ पर बैठा है।"
Translation:The dog is sitting on the table.
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1481
An adjective needs not be next to a noun to be an adjective. In “you are intelligent”, “intelligent” is an adjective. That’s the structure in use here, with “sitting” instead of “intelligent”.
I agree totally that "sits" is a more accurate translation. I was recently marked incorrect for translating a similar sentence as "The elephant stands on the table". The sentence, like the one disputed here, was not in the continuous tense. There are clearly times when someone would say these sentences and not mean the continuous present.
1481
Except it’s not a verb in Hindi. It’s an adjective. That’s why it doesn’t require a continuous tense.
Curious: how would one express, "while he was sitting down, someone pulled his chair out from under him." That being said, this explanation seems to he the most accurate. Basically, English (unlike most languages) now mainly reserves the present tense for habitual actions ("every week"). The result is a 1:2 relationship between a present tense (non-continuous) hindi verb construction (even if it is adjectival) and the english structures of continuous or habitual action. In most cases, therefore, both translations should be acceptable ("sits" or "is sitting"). Sorry, but 1:1 "consistency" is simply impossible. All languages are adequate for describing all thoughts and ideas, but they simply chop them up differently based on what the current grammar and vocabulary allow for (usually based on a balance of competing priorities: simplicity and accuracy).
So much discussion! And I just came here to say that Duolingo should also accept, "A dog is sitting on the table", but they currently don't. I've reported it.
And I just tried, "The dog is sitting on a table", and that is considered correct.
321
So if "कुत्ता मेज़ पर बैठा है।" must be translated as "The dog is sitting on the table", what would be Hindi for "the dog sits on the table"?
The vowel in बैठा can be said like the A in English "bat" The vowel in बेटा can be said like the AI in English "bait." Maybe not exactly, yada yada, but close enough to make the relevant distinction.
The best way to make the distinction though, is to really lean into the added air (aspiration) in बैठा, and make sure you're not putting any air on बेटा. Although I don't hear anything wrong with the Duo recording, I do find hearing the aspiration to be a bit harder to hear than, perhaps, it is with a live speaker.
1661
I hear the vowel in बैठा more as a the 'e' sound in 'bet'. Actually I didn't think the short 'a' in bat existed in Hindi. Certainly nobody sounds my own name, Sam, quite correctly... I always come out as Sem.
The e in "bet" and the a in "bat" are allophones in Hindi. Either works; both have the same communicative value, phonemically.
From a precise phonetic perspective, our tow English "bat"'s may differ somewhat, too. So of course, saying the sound is like "so and so" in English is imprecise but, like I said, close enough.
Whether the Hindi vowel sounds more like "bet" or "bat" actually varies across Hindi. The important thing is that this variation is not meaningful, and that either/both are meaningfully distinguished from the vowel in बेटा :) https://youtu.be/_EaX17bVcwc